Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Kiquilla.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Kiquilla.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program Inventor in Gensingen, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new Impatiens cultivars with interesting and unique flower and foliage colors.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in September, 1998 of a proprietary Impatiens hawkeri selection identified as 98-603, not patented, as the female, or seed parent, with the Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Moorea, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,147, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar Kiquilla was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany in March, 1999.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken at Gensingen, Germany, since May, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Kiquillaxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Kiquillaxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Impatiens cultivar:
1. Rounded, upright and compact plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit; bushy appearance.
3. Variegated foliage.
4. Freely flowering habit with flowers held above and beyond the foliage.
5. White-colored flowers.
Plants of the new Impatiens differ from plants of the female parent, the selection 98-603, primarily in leaf coloration as leaf variegation of plants of the new Impatiens is stronger than leaf variegation of plants of the selection 98-603.
Plants of the new Impatiens are most similar to plants of the male parent, the cultivar Moorea. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Gensingen, Germany, plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Moorea in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens were more freely branching than plants of the cultivar Moorea.
2. Leaves of plants of the new Impatiens were variegated whereas leaves of plants of the cultivar Moorea were not variegated.